Yoculan paces Lady Spartans

With a little less than 60 minutes gone in its match with Greater Atlanta Christian Tuesday afternoon, the Athens Academy girls soccer team found itself in an unfamiliar situation - down by a goal.

But the Lady Spartans, who won their first three games by 15-0 scores and are ranked No. 3 in Class A/AA, got a huge spark from senior striker Alexis Yoculan, who recorded three goals in an eight-minute span in the second half to pace Athens Academy (4-0) to a 4-2 victory at Slaughter Field.

''I just kept looking at the clock,'' said Yoculan, who also scored a first-half goal to give her 19 for the season. ''I was getting a little nervous, but I was confident we'd pull it out. I thought we did an excellent job. I was very impressed with the way we handled being down. (Greater Atlanta Christian) is a really good team.''

With the scored tied 1-1 after the first half, Greater Atlanta Christian (3-1), ranked fifth in Class A/AA, had control of the offense for the first 11 minutes of the second half and scored on a penalty kick by striker Jennifer Johnson with 21:32 remaining to go up 2-1.

The Lady Spartans had a number of chances after Johnson's go-ahead goal, but it wasn't until the 57th minute that Athens Academy was able to break through and tie the game when Yoculan took a pass on the left side from Boo Maynard and slipped past Greater Atlanta Christian keeper Gillian Potts for her second goal of the evening.

''I didn't think we deserved to be behind,'' said Athens Academy coach Steve Stewart, who has led the Lady Spartans to the Class A/AA title game the last two years. ''But we did well to take the game back. We had some kids who played a little scared, but I was happy as the game progressed because we got better and better. We took control when we started to play the ball into the flanks.''

Exactly one minute later, Yoculan put her team ahead to stay when she took a pass and dribbled to center, drilling a shot from about 20 yards out.

''That broke their back,'' said Stewart.

With 4:50 remaining, Yoculan placed the finishing touches on her four-goal game by scoring on a penalty kick after an Athens Academy shot attempt was touched in the crease by sweeper Kathryn Tarrili when Potts slipped.

''It all comes down to this: If we possess the ball and can stretch the field, we can isolate our goal scorer,'' said Stewart. ''When Alexis is one-on-one with any defender, she's a tough player. We try to build it wide and create mismatches on the field.''

The Lady Spartans got a good defensive effort from a number of players who Stewart said were learning new positions in 2004.

''Our defense is young, but it's getting better,'' he said. ''Our sweeper (Randall Cook) was an outside back last year. Hayley Reynolds is also new in her position, and so is Beth VanMol. It's all new to them; it'll take time to figure it all out.''